NEW ORLEANS -- An upcoming version of UDDI could give the Web services directory technology the boost it needs to spur adoption,
according to an IBM official at a conference on Wednesday.
Version 3 of UDDI, which actually was formulated last summer, is likely to be voted on by OASIS (Organization for the Advancement
of Structured Information Standards) later this year, said Tom Bellwood, senior technology staff member in IBM's emerging
technologies group and co-chairman of an OASIS technical committee on UDDI. Bellwood gave a presentation on UDDI Version 3
at the IBM developerWorks Live conference here.
Version 3 will help UDDI be adopted more in publicly available applications rather than the private, behind the firewall where
it has primarily been used, said Bellwood during an interview following his presentation. "In a public environment, I think
that it needs a lot of the features in Version 3," he said, citing features such as security and a multi-registry model.
The security model in Version 3 allows for use of digital signatures and for querying based on data that has been signed.
Digital signatures bring trust, integrity, and reliability to UDDI, Bellwood said. Users also can find out who published a
specific directory item and data can be moved between registries. "I think Version 3 is probably the basis for which really
all UDDI work will be done" in the future, Bellwood said.
The multi-registry feature enables private and public registries that can interact with each other. There will be root and
affiliate registries, with root registry acting as authority for key spaces, which are analogous to DNS names. The root registry
delegates key partitions. Affiliate registries follow rules of a particular root registry and are important for sharing of
information but not replication.
Version 3 also enables federated environments for publishers to specify their own keys. "It used to be you had one of these
things assigned for you," Bellwood said. The nested query function Version 3 enables queries within queries, which is important
for tool providers, he added.
The subscription concept in Version 3 allows tracking of content changes in a UDDI registry and can be done either asynchronously
or synchronously. Subscriptions can provide for automatic updates in affiliate registries, such as keeping a business informed
of changes in suppliers or competitors.
Version 3 also features a policy-based approach in which policies are separated from the implementation of the specification,
providing for more flexibility.
Additionally, Version 3 is schema-driven, in which schemas have been separated for improved interoperability, Bellwood said.
Version 3 also enables development of industry-specific taxonomies, has peer-based replication for improved scaling, and has
improved internationalization.
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